Automated multi-factor prioritization and visualization

ABSTRACT

A system for user activity and data aggregation and visualization, comprising a data aggregation server that receives data via a network, a prioritization server that ranks data, and a visualization engine that generates a visualization of ranked data using a planetary model, and a method for visualizing data using a planetary model.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/733,911, titled “MULTI-FACTOR PRIORITIZATION ANDVISUALIZATION TOOL” and filed on Jun. 8, 2015, the entire specificationof which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Art

The disclosure relates to the field of data visualization, and moreparticularly to the field of aggregating and visualizing userinformation and activities on an electronic device.

Discussion of the State of the Art

In mobile computing, there is a growing interest in aggregation of useractivity and personal data, in what is termed the “quantified self”.Users increasingly want to be able to track or summarize theiractivities in software apps or social networks, as well as trackfitness, health, or other personal data. Often, a user will use multipleproducts each with a separate “hub” or central summary that mayintegrate with some of their information, requiring the use of more thanone service to adequately view all of their information. This createsconfusion and duplicate data, and complicates the process ofsummarization, a primary intent of which is to make informationconvenient and accessible. Additionally, users often want to incorporatea social element to their data monitoring, such as to share data withcontacts or find others for group activities such as games or fitnessevents. A further need when collecting and presenting large amounts ofinformation, is the prioritization of information so that moreimmediately relevant or important information may be readily accessible.

Present information interfaces in the art generally rely on either atile-based or list-based visual arrangement of information, which issuitable for presenting information in an ordered fashion but isinefficient overall. Such arrangements require a minimum amount ofscreen area to adequately present information while making the largerstructure or direction of the interface clear. To view additionalinformation, a user must interact with the interface to scroll, flip, orotherwise advance a display to view further tiles or list items. Theserequirements may cause complications as screens become smaller, forexample in mobile smartphones or wearable electronics, where screenspace is at a premium and an emphasis is placed on economizingpresentation of information to a user.

What is needed is a means to aggregate data from a variety of sourcesincluding apps, health and fitness trackers, contacts, and socialnetwork accounts, and to visualize aggregated information in a mannerthat is easy to view and understand and that indicates informationpriority or importance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, in apreferred embodiment of the invention, a system and method for automatedmultifactor prioritization and visualization, that is suitable foraggregating data from a wide variety of sources and visualizing data ina prioritized manner that is space-efficient (suitable for viewing onsmall screens) and rapidly-understood (suitable for viewing in quickglances).

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, A system forautomated multifactor prioritization and visualization, comprising acomputing device comprising at least a memory and a processor andconnected to a packet-based data network, a data aggregation serversoftware module stored in the memory of, and operating on the processorof, the computing device, a plurality of communication adapter softwaremodules stored in the memory of, and operating on the processor of, thecomputing device, a prioritization server software module stored in thememory of, and operating on the processor of, the computing device, anda visualization engine software module stored in the memory of, andoperating on the processor of, the computing device, is disclosed.According to the embodiment, a first communication adapter softwaremodule is configured to receive data elements via the data network froma first plurality of data sources in a first protocol and passes thereceived data elements to the data aggregation server software module ina standard format different from the first protocol; a secondcommunication adapter software module is configured to receivetime-stamped data elements via the data network from a second pluralityof data sources in a second protocol and passes the received dataelements to the data aggregation server software module in the standardformat which is also different from the second protocol; the dataaggregation server software module generates a first aggregatecomprising all received data elements pertaining to a first object andgenerates a second aggregate comprising all received data elementspertaining to a second object; the prioritization server software modulecomputes, using the first aggregate, a first plurality of indicia eachpertaining to a specific relationship between the first object and athird object and computes, using the second aggregate, a secondplurality of indicia each pertaining to a specific relationship betweenthe second object and the third object; and the visualization enginesoftware module computes a distance measure from the third object to thefirst object based on a first indicia drawn from the first plurality ofindicia, computes a size measure for the first object based on a secondindicia drawn from the first plurality of indicia, and determines avisual attribute for the first object based on a third indicia drawnfrom the first plurality of indicia; the visualization engine softwaremodule computes a distance measure from the third object to the secondobject based on a first indicia drawn from the second plurality ofindicia, computes a size measure for the second object based on a secondindicia drawn from the second plurality of indicia, and determines avisual attribute for the second object based on a third indicia drawnfrom the second plurality of indicia; and the visualization enginesends, via a third communication adapter software module and the datanetwork, the distance measure and size measure and visual attribute ofthe first object and the distance measure and size measure and visualattribute of the second object to a client visualization application.

In another preferred embodiment, a method for visualizing aggregateduser data according to a planetary model, comprising the steps of:receiving, at a first communication adapter software module stored inthe memory of, and operating on the processor of, a computing device, aplurality of data elements via a data network from a first plurality ofdata sources in a first protocol; providing the received data elementsto a data aggregation server software module software module stored inthe memory of, and operating on the processor of, the computing devicein a standard format different from the first protocol; receiving, at asecond communication adapter software module stored in the memory of,and operating on the processor of, the computing device, a plurality oftime-stamped data elements via a data network from a second plurality ofdata sources in a second protocol; providing the received data elementsto the data aggregation server software module in the standard formatwhich is also different from the second protocol; generating, at thedata aggregation server software module, a first aggregate comprisingall received data elements pertaining to a first object; generating asecond aggregate comprising all received data elements pertaining to asecond object; computing, at a prioritization server software modulestored in the memory of, and operating on the processor of, thecomputing device, using the first aggregate, a first plurality ofindicia each pertaining to a specific relationship between the firstobject and a third object; computing, using the second aggregate, asecond plurality of indicia each pertaining to a specific relationshipbetween the second object and the third object; computing, at avisualization engine software module stored in the memory of, andoperating on the processor of, the computing device, a distance measurefrom the third object to the first object based on a first indicia drawnfrom the first plurality of indicia; computing a size measure for thefirst object based on a second indicia drawn from the first plurality ofindicia; determining a visual attribute for the first object based on athird indicia drawn from the first plurality of indicia; computing adistance measure from the third object to the second object based on afirst indicia drawn from the second plurality of indicia; computing asize measure for the second object based on a second indicia drawn fromthe second plurality of indicia; determining a visual attribute for thesecond object based on a third indicia drawn from the second pluralityof indicia; and sending, via a third communication adapter softwaremodule stored in the memory of, and operating on the processor of, thecomputing device, and via the data network, the distance measure andsize measure and visual attribute of the first object and the distancemeasure and size measure and visual attribute of the second object to aclient visualization application, is disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention according to the embodiments. It will beappreciated by one skilled in the art that the particular embodimentsillustrated in the drawings are merely exemplary, and are not to beconsidered as limiting of the scope of the invention or the claimsherein in any way.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logical architecturefor a client device, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architectural arrangementof clients, servers, and external services, according to an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 4 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in various embodiments of theinvention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram, illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor automated multifactor prioritization and visualization.

FIG. 6 is a method flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method forvisualizing aggregated user activity data according to a planetarymodel.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an exemplary planetary model user interfacefor visualizing user activity data, according to a preferred embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical interface forviewing user information.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical interface forviewing game activity information.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical interface forviewing fitness information.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical interface forviewing social network information.

FIG. 12 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical interface forviewing contact information.

FIG. 13 is a prior art illustration of a tile-based user interface.

FIG. 14 is a prior art illustration of a list-based user interface.

FIG. 15 is an illustration of an exemplary planetary model userinterface for visualizing customer relations management data, accordingto a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 16A illustrates a calendar view that may be utilized to viewinformation by day.

FIG. 16B illustrates a calendar view that may be utilized to viewinformation by month.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, in a preferredembodiment of the invention, a system and method for automatedmultifactor prioritization and visualization, that is suitable foraggregating data form a wide variety of sources and visualizing data ina prioritized manner that is space-efficient (suitable for viewing onsmall screens) and rapidly-understood (suitable for viewing in quickglances).

One or more different inventions may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the inventions describedherein, numerous alternative embodiments may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the inventions contained herein or the claimspresented herein in any way. One or more of the inventions may be widelyapplicable to numerous embodiments, as may be readily apparent from thedisclosure. In general, embodiments are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of theinventions, and it should be appreciated that other embodiments may beutilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and otherchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the particularinventions. Accordingly, one skilled in the art will recognize that oneor more of the inventions may be practiced with various modificationsand alterations. Particular features of one or more of the inventionsdescribed herein may be described with reference to one or moreparticular embodiments or figures that form a part of the presentdisclosure, and in which are shown, by way of illustration, specificembodiments of one or more of the inventions. It should be appreciated,however, that such features are not limited to usage in the one or moreparticular embodiments or figures with reference to which they aredescribed. The present disclosure is neither a literal description ofall embodiments of one or more of the inventions nor a listing offeatures of one or more of the inventions that must be present in allembodiments.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an embodiment with several components in communicationwith each other does not imply that all such components are required. Tothe contrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible embodiments of one or more of theinventions and in order to more fully illustrate one or more aspects ofthe inventions. Similarly, although process steps, method steps,algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, suchprocesses, methods and algorithms may generally be configured to work inalternate orders, unless specifically stated to the contrary. In otherwords, any sequence or order of steps that may be described in thispatent application does not, in and of itself, indicate a requirementthat the steps be performed in that order. The steps of describedprocesses may be performed in any order practical. Further, some stepsmay be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied asoccurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described afterthe other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by itsdepiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process isexclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not implythat the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to one ormore of the invention(s), and does not imply that the illustratedprocess is preferred. Also, steps are generally described once perembodiment, but this does not mean they must occur once, or that theymay only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm is carriedout or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some embodiments or someoccurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in a givenembodiment or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a singledevice or article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other embodiments of oneor more of the inventions need not include the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular embodiments may include multiple iterationsof a technique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of embodiments of the present invention inwhich, for example, functions may be executed out of order from thatshown or discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverseorder, depending on the functionality involved, as would be understoodby those having ordinary skill in the art.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of theembodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on a programmablenetwork-resident machine (which should be understood to includeintermittently connected network-aware machines) selectively activatedor reconfigured by a computer program stored in memory. Such networkdevices may have multiple network interfaces that may be configured ordesigned to utilize different types of network communication protocols.A general architecture for some of these machines may be describedherein in order to illustrate one or more exemplary means by which agiven unit of functionality may be implemented. According to specificembodiments, at least some of the features or functionalities of thevarious embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on one or moregeneral-purpose computers associated with one or more networks, such asfor example an end-user computer system, a client computer, a networkserver or other server system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tabletcomputing device, mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriatecomputing device), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or anyother suitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitabledevice, or any combination thereof. In at least some embodiments, atleast some of the features or functionalities of the various embodimentsdisclosed herein may be implemented in one or more virtualized computingenvironments (e.g., network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted onone or more physical computing machines, or other appropriate virtualenvironments).

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 100 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 100 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 100 may be adaptedto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one embodiment, computing device 100 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 102, one or more interfaces 110, and one or morebusses 106 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 102may be responsible for implementing specific functions associated withthe functions of a specifically configured computing device or machine.For example, in at least one embodiment, a computing device 100 may beconfigured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 102,local memory 101 and/or remote memory 120, and interface(s) 110. In atleast one embodiment, CPU 102 may be caused to perform one or more ofthe different types of functions and/or operations under the control ofsoftware modules or components, which for example, may include anoperating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, andthe like.

CPU 102 may include one or more processors 103 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some embodiments, processors 103 may includespecially designed hardware such as application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 100. In a specificembodiment, a local memory 101 (such as non-volatile random accessmemory (RAM) and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one ormore levels of cached memory) may also form part of CPU 102. However,there are many different ways in which memory may be coupled to system100. Memory 101 may be used for a variety of purposes such as, forexample, caching and/or storing data, programming instructions, and thelike. It should be further appreciated that CPU 102 may be one of avariety of system-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may includeadditional hardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such asa Qualcomm SNAPDRAGON™ or Samsung EXYNOS™ CPU as are becomingincreasingly common in the art, such as for use in mobile devices orintegrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one embodiment, interfaces 110 are provided as network interfacecards (NICs).

Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of data packets over acomputer network; other types of interfaces 110 may for example supportother peripherals used with computing device 100. Among the interfacesthat may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relay interfaces,cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces, graphicsinterfaces, and the like. In addition, various types of interfaces maybe provided such as, for example, universal serial bus (USB), Serial,Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radio frequency (RF),BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., using near-fieldmagnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fast Ethernetinterfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) or externalSATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI),digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audio interfaces,asynchronous transfer mode (A™) interfaces, high-speed serial interface(HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces, fiber datadistributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, such interfaces110 may include physical ports appropriate for communication withappropriate media. In some cases, they may also include an independentprocessor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, as is common inthe art for high-fidelity A/V hardware interfaces) and, in someinstances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 1 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 100 for implementing one or more ofthe inventions described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 103 may be used, and such processors 103may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one embodiment, a single processor 103 handlescommunications as well as routing computations, while in otherembodiments a separate dedicated communications processor may beprovided. In various embodiments, different types of features orfunctionalities may be implemented in a system according to theinvention that includes a client device (such as a tablet device orsmartphone running client software) and server systems (such as a serversystem described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of the presentinvention may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as,for example, remote memory block 120 and local memory 101) configured tostore data, program instructions for the general-purpose networkoperations, or other information relating to the functionality of theembodiments described herein (or any combinations of the above). Programinstructions may control execution of or comprise an operating systemand/or one or more applications, for example. Memory 120 or memories101, 120 may also be configured to store data structures, configurationdata, encryption data, historical system operations information, or anyother specific or generic non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample a Java™ compiler and may be executed using a Java virtualmachine or equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some embodiments, systems according to the present invention may beimplemented on a standalone computing system. Referring now to FIG. 2,there is shown a block diagram depicting a typical exemplaryarchitecture of one or more embodiments or components thereof on astandalone computing system. Computing device 200 includes processors210 that may run software that carry out one or more functions orapplications of embodiments of the invention, such as for example aclient application 230. Processors 210 may carry out computinginstructions under control of an operating system 220 such as, forexample, a version of Microsoft's WINDOWS™ operating system, Apple's MacOS/X or iOS operating systems, some variety of the Linux operatingsystem, Google's ANDROID™ operating system, or the like. In many cases,one or more shared services 225 may be operable in system 200, and maybe useful for providing common services to client applications 230.Services 225 may for example be WINDOWS™ services, user-space commonservices in a Linux environment, or any other type of common servicearchitecture used with operating system 210. Input devices 270 may be ofany type suitable for receiving user input, including for example akeyboard, touchscreen, microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse,touchpad, trackball, or any combination thereof. Output devices 260 maybe of any type suitable for providing output to one or more users,whether remote or local to system 200, and may include for example oneor more screens for visual output, speakers, printers, or anycombination thereof. Memory 240 may be random-access memory having anystructure and architecture known in the art, for use by processors 210,for example to run software. Storage devices 250 may be any magnetic,optical, mechanical, memristor, or electrical storage device for storageof data in digital form (such as those described above, referring toFIG. 1). Examples of storage devices 250 include flash memory, magnetichard drive, CD-ROM, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, systems of the present invention may be implementedon a distributed computing network, such as one having any number ofclients and/or servers. Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown a blockdiagram depicting an exemplary architecture 300 for implementing atleast a portion of a system according to an embodiment of the inventionon a distributed computing network. According to the embodiment, anynumber of clients 330 may be provided. Each client 330 may run softwarefor implementing client-side portions of the present invention; clientsmay comprise a system 200 such as that illustrated in FIG. 2. Inaddition, any number of servers 320 may be provided for handlingrequests received from one or more clients 330. Clients 330 and servers320 may communicate with one another via one or more electronic networks310, which may be in various embodiments any of the Internet, a widearea network, a mobile telephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellularnetworks), a wireless network (such as WiFi, Wimax, LTE, and so forth),or a local area network (or indeed any network topology known in theart; the invention does not prefer any one network topology over anyother). Networks 310 may be implemented using any known networkprotocols, including for example wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some embodiments, servers 320 may call external services370 when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer toadditional data concerning a particular call. Communications withexternal services 370 may take place, for example, via one or morenetworks 310. In various embodiments, external services 370 may compriseweb-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on thehardware device itself. For example, in an embodiment where clientapplications 230 are implemented on a smartphone or other electronicdevice, client applications 230 may obtain information stored in aserver system 320 in the cloud or on an external service 370 deployed onone or more of a particular enterprise's or user's premises.

In some embodiments of the invention, clients 330 or servers 320 (orboth) may make use of one or more specialized services or appliancesthat may be deployed locally or remotely across one or more networks310. For example, one or more databases 340 may be used or referred toby one or more embodiments of the invention. It should be understood byone having ordinary skill in the art that databases 340 may be arrangedin a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety of dataaccess and manipulation means. For example, in various embodiments oneor more databases 340 may comprise a relational database system using astructured query language (SQL), while others may comprise analternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the artas “NoSQL” (for example, Hadoop Cassandra, Google BigTable, and soforth). In some embodiments, variant database architectures such ascolumn-oriented databases, in-memory databases, clustered databases,distributed databases, or even flat file data repositories may be usedaccording to the invention. It will be appreciated by one havingordinary skill in the art that any combination of known or futuredatabase technologies may be used as appropriate, unless a specificdatabase technology or a specific arrangement of components is specifiedfor a particular embodiment herein. Moreover, it should be appreciatedthat the term “database” as used herein may refer to a physical databasemachine, a cluster of machines acting as a single database system, or alogical database within an overall database management system. Unless aspecific meaning is specified for a given use of the term “database”, itshould be construed to mean any of these senses of the word, all ofwhich are understood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by thosehaving ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, most embodiments of the invention may make use of one or moresecurity systems 360 and configuration systems 350. Security andconfiguration management are common information technology (IT) and webfunctions, and some amount of each are generally associated with any ITor web systems. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill inthe art that any configuration or security subsystems known in the artnow or in the future may be used in conjunction with embodiments of theinvention without limitation, unless a specific security 360 orconfiguration system 350 or approach is specifically required by thedescription of any specific embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 400 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 400 withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the system and method disclosedherein. CPU 401 is connected to bus 402, to which bus is also connectedmemory 403, nonvolatile memory 404, display 407, I/O unit 408, andnetwork interface card (NIC) 413. I/O unit 408 may, typically, beconnected to keyboard 409, pointing device 410, hard disk 412, andreal-time clock 411. NIC 413 connects to network 414, which may be theInternet or a local network, which local network may or may not haveconnections to the Internet. Also shown as part of system 400 is powersupply unit 405 connected, in this example, to ac supply 406. Not shownare batteries that could be present, and many other devices andmodifications that are well known but are not applicable to the specificnovel functions of the current system and method disclosed herein. Itshould be appreciated that some or all components illustrated may becombined, such as in various integrated applications (for example,Qualcomm or Samsung SOC-based devices), or whenever it may beappropriate to combine multiple capabilities or functions into a singlehardware device (for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones,video game consoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation ormultimedia systems in automobiles, or other integrated hardwaredevices).

In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems ormethods of the present invention may be distributed among any number ofclient and/or server components. For example, various software modulesmay be implemented for performing various functions in connection withthe present invention, and such modules may be variously implemented torun on server and/or client components.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 5 is a block diagram, illustrating an exemplary system architecture500 for automated multifactor prioritization and visualization.

According to the embodiment, data may be received from a variety of datasources, such as including (for example) a social network 520 (such asTWITTER™, LINKEDIN™, FACEBOOK™, or other social network service), anemail program 521 (or any other communication software application orconnected hardware device, such as SMS or instant message applicationsor a hardware telephone), a connected fitness tracker 522 (such as aFITBIT™ or an integral fitness tracking component of a user's device,for example a hardware accelerometer adapted to track steps or otherphysical activity), or a game 523 or other software application, such asan online application or software operating on a user's device. Itshould be appreciated that described data sources are exemplary, and awide variety of sources may be utilized according to the invention inany arrangement or combination according to a user's particulararrangement or use.

A plurality of communication adapters 515 may be utilized to facilitategeneral or specialized communication between various data sources anddata aggregation server 510 according to a particular arrangement.According to the embodiment, a first communication adapter 515 may beconfigured to receive a plurality of data elements via the data networkfrom a first plurality of data sources in a first protocol, such as anIP protocol. The first communication adapter 515 may then pass thereceived data elements to data aggregation server 510 in a standardformat different from the first protocol, for example an XML-based orother standardized format.

According to the embodiment, a second communication adapter 515 may beconfigured to receive a plurality of time-stamped data elements via thedata network from a second plurality of data sources in a secondprotocol. The first communication adapter 515 may then pass the receiveddata elements to data aggregation server 510 in a standard formatdifferent from the second protocol.

According to the embodiment, a game adapter 516 may receive a pluralityof game information from gaming devices (the first plurality of datasources). Game data may include (for example) user account information,game session information (for example, when a game was played or for howlong), or game-specific information or metrics, such as “gold piecescollected” (for example). This data may be received by game adapter 516in a first protocol, such as an IP protocol, and may then be provided todata aggregation server 510 in a standard format different from thefirst protocol, such as (for example) an XML-based data encodingstandard used to encode data for use by different components in astandardized manner. An email adapter 517 may receive time-stamped emailinformation such as email addresses or account information, mailboxconfigurations, contacts, message history, or other email communicationor configuration information. A social adapter 518 may be used toreceive and process data from a specific social networking service, suchas FACEBOOK™ (for example), such as user account information, contactsor “friends” within a social network, activity history such as postingsor comments, or media uploads such as photos or videos. A fitnessadapter 519 may be used to receive and process data from a fitness orhealth tracker such as (for example) a FITBIT™ hardware fitness monitor,or software application, such as (for example) Apple HEALTHKIT™ softwareapplications. Communication adapters 515 may comprise softwareapplication programming interfaces (API), or specialized hardwaremodules (such as to process data using hardware-based encryption, forexample), or may be software applications adapted to facilitatecommunication. For example, an API may be utilized as a social adapter518 to integrate with particular social networks (such as FACEBOOK™ orTWITTER™, for example) to receive user account information, postings, orother data and to process received data according to its source. It maybe generally understood that data from various sources may differ invarious aspects, for example in formatting or encoding. By utilizing aplurality of communication adapters 515 according to the embodiment,data may be received from a wide variety of sources and provided to dataaggregation server 510 in a unified manner, providing a consistent userexperience and ensuring data integrity.

According to the particular nature of a data source as describedpreviously, data received may vary. For example, data from socialnetwork 520 may comprise a variety of user-related information such asaccount information, contacts, or recent activity. Data from an email521 or other communication application may include recent messages,contacts or other communication data that may be relevant to a user,data from fitness tracker 522 may include recent activity such asworkouts, daily activity summary, or health information such as currentheart rate, and data from a game 523 or other application may include avariety of user account information, activity, or contacts (such asother users playing the same game).

According to the embodiment, a data aggregation server 510 may compriseat least a plurality of programming instructions stored in a memoryoperating on a network-connected computing device and configured toreceive a plurality of data via a network 501. Network 501 may be theInternet or any suitable data communication network for conveyingelectronic information between hardware devices or softwareapplications, including for example an internal network within a user'sdevice for conveying information between software applications orhardware components operating on the device (such as between dataaggregation server 510 and a plurality of communication adapters 515operating on the device). According to the embodiment, data aggregationserver 510 may generate a first aggregate comprising all received dataelements pertaining to a first object (for example, game data pertainingto a data object representing a software gaming application) and mayalso generate a second aggregate comprising all received data elementspertaining to a second object (for example, social network activitypertaining to a data object representing a particular social networkuser account).

Data received by data aggregation server 510 and aggregates produced bydata aggregation server 510 may be provided to a prioritization server511, that may compute, using the first aggregate, a first plurality ofindicia each pertaining to a specific relationship between the firstobject and a third object and may also compute, using the secondaggregate, a second plurality of indicia each pertaining to a specificrelationship between the second object and the third object. Forexample, an aggregate may comprise a plurality of indicia pertaining toa relationship between a gaming application and a user's accountinformation on a gaming service (such as, for example, XBOX LIVE™ orother gaming services), or a relationship between a particular clientaccount and a portfolio comprising many accounts (such as in a CRMarrangement, as described below).

In the computation of aggregates by prioritization server 511, a varietyof ranking operations may be performed based on received data. Rankingmay be used to determine relative “relevance” or similar metadata thatmay be associated with portions of received data according to aparticular use, such as to sort received data according to recentness.For example, a plurality of email messages from a user's configuredemail account may be ranked according to when they were received, orworkouts logged by a fitness tracker may be ranked according to whenthey took place. In this manner a large portion of data may be easilyorganized and prioritized to enable more relevant information to be mademore accessible, making large bodies of information more “actionable” asrelevant information may be given higher precedence over informationthat may be less likely to be needed for viewing or taking action.

According to the embodiment, a visualization engine 512 may compute adistance measure from the third object to the first object based on afirst indicia drawn from the first plurality of indicia, and may alsocompute a size measure for the first object based on a second indiciadrawn from the first plurality of indicia. Visualization engine 512 maythen determine a visual attribute for the first object based on a thirdindicia drawn from the first plurality of indicia. Visualization engine512 may further compute a distance measure from the third object to thesecond object based on a first indicia drawn from the second pluralityof indicia, compute a size measure for the second object based on asecond indicia drawn from the second plurality of indicia, and determinea visual attribute for the second object based on a third indicia drawnfrom the second plurality of indicia. For example, a computed distancemeasure may represent a measure of priority pertaining to a clientaccount in a CRM arrangement (as described below), the first object andsecond object for example being data objects representing individualclient accounts, and the third object being a data object representing aportfolio comprising a number of individual accounts. According to suchan arrangement, each client account object may be given a computeddistance measure from the portfolio object, indicating their individualrelevance or priority within the portfolio.

Further according to the embodiment, a visualization engine 512 maysend, via a third communication adapter 515 and via network 501, thedistance measure and size measure and visual attribute of the firstobject and the distance measure and size measure and visual attribute ofthe second object to a client visualization application (for example, avisual rendering software application operating on a client device, suchas a user's mobile device), for use in forming graphical representationsof data for viewing by a user. For example, visualization engine 512 maygenerate visual indicia and then provide generated indicia to aconnected output device such as a computer monitor or a built-in displayoperating on a user's device (such as a smartphone display), whereindicia may be visually presented for viewing.

Detailed Description of Prior Art

FIG. 13 is a prior art illustration of a tile-based user interface 1300.In such interface arrangements common in the art, a plurality of “tiles”or icons 1301 are displayed, each corresponding to a discrete portion ofinformation (such as stored contact information for an individual), or asoftware application such as a game or other application, and aregenerally arranged in a grid-like format. Additional icons may be viewedby navigating to additional “pages” of interface 1300, for example byswiping (for example, using a touchscreen-enabled device) or byscrolling (for example, using a mouse or similar scrolling inputdevice). Such arrangements are well suited to ordered graphical displayof many elements, but they are inefficient in terms of screen space anduser interaction, requiring additional steps to view the full extent ofavailable information.

FIG. 14 is a prior art illustration of a list-based user interface 1400.According to a list-based arrangement, a plurality of information orsoftware applications are presented as a list of items 1401, generallyarranged in a linear fashion and optionally allowing a user to viewadditional information by scrolling through the list. Such arrangementsare suitable for presenting linear information such as time-based listsshowing an order of events (for example, for viewing news articles orcommunication messages), but are less efficient in terms of both screenspace and user interaction than even a grid-like arrangement describedpreviously (referring to FIG. 13). To view more information a user musttake additional steps to scroll through a list, and there may be littleor no indication of position to indicate a user's current position in alist or the position of an information item they are searching for.

It may be further appreciated that both tile-based and list-basedinterface arrangements may be unsuitable for very small screens, as theyrely on a degree of space in which to arrange information for display,and as the size of a display decreases the information may become morecrowded or lose the relative indications of order or direction toprovide necessary cues for a user to navigate the interface (forexample, in a list-based interface, if a screen is only large enough todisplay a single item at a time, a user has no indication of whatdirection to scroll to view the rest of the list).

According to the embodiments disclosed herein, a planetary-model userinterface may be used to present a variety of information to a user,addressing the shortcomings in the art through efficient and meaningfulinformation layout. Rather than a traditional unidirectional orbi-directional tile-based or list-based arrangement, a planetary-modelinterface may display information in an amorphous structure, visualizinginformation or software applications as “planets”, circular icons, orother discrete graphical indicia for identification. These indicia maybe positioned arbitrarily about a center point, similar to arrangementsof stars in a galaxy or planets in a solar system. Various visual cuesmay be used to identify information details without occupying additionalscreen space to describe them in text, for example identifyingparticular attributes such as recent activity or certain metricizedprogress or status measurements using visual cues such as size, color,shape, or physical arrangement of graphical indicia. For example, asoftware application that was used recently may be positioned close to acentral point where, for example, a user's personal information may bepresented as a unique graphical indicia to serve both as a quick andconvenient way to view personal information (such as contact informationor account details), as well as to serve as an “anchor” point to orienta user towards the center of an interface for rapid navigation orviewing. A planetary-model interface may also be suitable for rapidnavigation, as a user may “zoom out” to view additional planets or otherindicia, and then “zoom in” to a particular region to view theinformation they need, eliminating the need to incrementally scrollthrough a list or flip through pages of tiles. Additionally, a varietyof “idle animation” may be utilized, causing indicia to move about whilea user is viewing an interface. This may be used, for example, to causeindicia to “orbit” or slowly rotate about a central indicia, maintainingtheir relative positioning with one another (and thus preservingdetailed information indicated by such visual cues, as described below),and allowing indicia to move into view on their own so that a user maynot need to scroll or zoom to view all information available.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 15 is an illustration of an exemplary planetary model userinterface 1500 for visualizing customer relations management (CRM) data,according to a preferred embodiment of the invention. According to theembodiment, a CRM agent ID (such as their name or CRM program logindata, or any other suitable means of identifying a particular agent) maybe displayed as a central graphical indicia 1501, about which variousother indicia may be arranged according to a planetary model. Accordingto various alternate arrangements, additional or alternate informationmay be represented as a central indicia, for example a single account orclient, or a particular product or service. In this manner, a variety ofinformation may be used as a visual “center point” around which relatedinformation may be represented according to a planetary model. Forexample, a plurality of indicia 1502 may be displayed, each representinga single client or account for which an agent is responsible or withwhich they may be associated (for example, in a banking use case severalagents may work together on a single account). According to theembodiment, a variety of visual cues may be displayed to indicateinformation details, for example as illustrated a graphical depiction ofa customer's sentiment may be displayed, such as using a “smiling face”on indicia 1502 to indicate positive sentiment or happy customers, or an“angry face” on indicia 1505 to indicate a dissatisfied customer.Indicia 1503, 1504 may be displayed with additional visual identifiers,for example, to indicate a prospective client (as illustrated here usinga question mark). Additionally, as described previously each additionalindicia displayed may in turn be used as a central or “anchor” indicia,about which other indicia may be arranged. For example, in a CRMarrangement according to the embodiment, individual clients may beindicated (for example using visual cues such as color), and if a user“clicks” or otherwise interacts with a client, individual accounts orcases associated with that particular client may be displayed arrangedabout a central indicia corresponding to the client as a whole (such asa corporate or account ID, for example). In this manner, a large numberof indicia may be easily accessed and arranged as a form of “nested”planetary models, for example where a coarse summary is initiallydisplayed arranged about a central indicia, and upon further interactionanother indicia may be selected for central use and new indicia may bedisplayed or existing indicia may be rearranged about the new centralindicia.

According to the embodiment, graphical indicia may be rearranged ormodified in a “live” or “real time” manner, for example while a user isactively viewing a visualization interface. For example, according to aCRM arrangement, if a user is viewing an interface while a client makesa purchase, a graphical indicia representing that client's account maybe updated immediately during viewing—such as, for example,repositioning their indicia closer to center (to indicate recentactivity), or increasing the size (to indicate a greater value now thatthey have purchased an additional product). In this manner, informationmay be updated continuously without disrupting other information or auser's view, something that is not possible in traditional visualizationarrangements using tiles or lists.

A variety of additional visual cues may be utilized to indicate detailedinformation, such as using positioning to indicate relevancyinformation. According to the embodiment, indicia may be placed closerto an agent's central indicia 1501 to indicate clients or informationthat was recently interacted with, for example a plurality of indicia1503 indicating recent, prospective clients. Indicia 1504 may be placedfurther away to indicate less relevance, for example a prospectiveclient that has not returned a call in some time, or that expressed onlya low level of interest as would indicate that they are less likely tobecome customers. Other visual cues may include varying the size orshape of a plurality of indicia, for example using an enlarged indicia1505 to indicate a high-value customer such as one with a large accountbalance or a large number of subscriptions (or other indicators ormetrics of account value, according to a particular use case), orvarying a color or other visual cue for a plurality of indicia, such asto indicate the nature of information represented (for example, using agreen outline to indicate corporate clients, or a shaded icon toindicate suspended accounts, or other such visual cues). In this manner,a “multi-factor” visualization of information may be provided throughthe use of various non-conflicting visual cues, such as size, color,text, graphic-based identifiers, animations, proximity, or absoluteposition. This may make a complex view of information easily digestiblefor a user, and easily displayed in a compact visual form-factor, suchas for use on devices with small screens or limited resources.

Visual cues may also be utilized to provide notifications, for examplecausing an indicia to “blink” or “pulsate”, or otherwise visuallyindicate that attention may be required. This may provide an interactiveinformation viewing and notification system without requiring a user toview additional software interfaces or applications, as may be requiredin various traditional arrangements (for example, “push” notificationson a mobile device that open a particular software application to allowa user to respond). Indicia may also be grouped relatively close to oneanother to indicate association, for example a plurality of indicia 1502may be arranged close to each other to indicate related customeraccounts, for example a family account or a number of individualaccounts associated with a single corporate client.

It should also be appreciated that by grouping indicia according to theinvention, either by physical arrangement (such as with indicia 1502)being grouped relatively close to one another), or by visual cues (suchas using a particular color to indicate related accounts), variousinformation types or categories may utilize distinct sets of rules orconfiguration for display. For example, one set of information maydisplay using proximity to a central indicia 1501 to indicate howrecently the account holder was contacted, while another set may utilizeproximity to indicate how long the account has been open. In thismanner, a wide variety of information may be presented in a unified,consistent manner that is efficient and easily understood by a user, andthe specific nature may be configured to suit their particular needs orpreference.

Another exemplary use case for a planetary-model interface according tothe invention, may be that of managing a law firm (or other similarclient-oriented firm). Various indicia may be displayed to representindividual clients or cases, and visual cues may be used to indicateinternal management information such as time tracking (“how many hourshave we spent on this client this week?”) or cost management (“how muchhave we spent pursuing this case?”). By varying visual cues used in thedisplay of indicia, a variety of information may be indicated easily andin a very space-efficient manner, suitable for minimal user interaction(as the information is already available in a display without additionalaction to reveal further details) and appropriate for small screens suchas for a mobile or wearable device, or for use in a small program windowsuitable for display alongside a number of other windows during workactivities without impacting productivity.

FIG. 6 is a method flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method 600 forvisualizing aggregated user activity data according to a planetarymodel. In an initial step 601, a visualization engine may receive aplurality of ranked data (for example, provided by a prioritizationserver as described previously, referring to FIG. 5). In a next step602, a graphical indicia (such as in icon or image) may be generated,corresponding to a user. For example, an indicia may comprise user'sinitials may be used to form a small identifying indicia, or animage-based avatar selected from a preconfigured library or of a user'sown choosing. In a next step 603, the user indicia may be displayed inthe center of a visualization area such as a program window on a user'sdevice. In a next step 604, a graphical indicia corresponding to a firstportion of the received ranked data (for example, an icon representing acontact such as a friend or family member) may be displayed, positionedwith a proximity to the user indicia based at least in part on theinformation's rank within the body of received ranked information. Forexample, high-ranked information may be placed in close proximity to auser's indicia, while lower-ranked (generally indicating less relevantor less recent) data may be displayed at a further proximity. In a nextstep 605, a next graphical indicia corresponding to a next portion ofranked data (for example, another contact) may be displayed, withproximity based on the data's ranking relative to both the user indiciaand any previously-displayed indicia corresponding to ranked data. Inthis manner it can be appreciated that each new graphical indiciadisplayed may be positioned such that its proximity to other indicia maybe generally indicative of their relative ranking. For example, a numberof contacts stored on a user's device may be displayed with relativeproximity to one another based on how recently they were communicatedwith, indicating not only an overall relevance (as determined by theproximity to a user's own indicia in the center of the visualization),but also a comparative relevance between each of a plurality ofdisplayed ranked indicia (as indicated by their proximity to oneanother). In a final step 606, the visualization engine may check to seeif any updated data has been received, and continue a visualizationprocess in a looping fashion as illustrated, facilitating a “live” orcontinually-updating visualization of data. In this manner, avisualization and all displayed data may be kept current, ensuring thatthe apparent relevancy information is indicative of current data oractivities.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an exemplary planetary model user interface700 for visualizing user activity data, according to a preferredembodiment of the invention. According to the embodiment, a graphicalindicia corresponding to a user 701 may be displayed, having a generallycentral location within a visualization. The user indicia may correspondto a user's contact information (such as their name or phone number, asmay be appropriate when operating on a smartphone or other mobiledevice), or a particular account belonging to the user (such as an emailaccount, or their preferred social network account, for example theirFACEBOOK™ login as is commonly used across a variety of softwareapplications for user identification). A variety of exemplary additionalgraphical indicia that may be displayed, and associated information, isdescribed below.

A variety of additional graphical indicia may be displayed about a userindicia 701, for example corresponding to a friend 702 or other contact(for example, contacts stored on a user's device). According to theembodiment, a contact 702 may be displayed with close proximity to user701, indicating that they recently communicated. If communicationoccurred less recently, a contact 703 may be displayed further away froma user, indicating a lower relevancy. An approaching “to-do” 704 (suchas a scheduled calendar event or reminder) may be displayed, withproximity indicating how far away the vent is. An event about to occurmay be displayed immediately adjacent to user 701, while one that is farin the future may be displayed further away, making room for moreimmediate information displayed closer to user 701. A social network 705may be displayed, and as illustrated may utilize additional visual cuesto indicate more information, for example proximity to user 701indicating how recently a user was active (for example; could also beused to indicate how recently a user received a private message, or wastagged in a photo, or other various social networking activities), whilethe size of indicia for social network 705 may indicate overall activity(for example, a larger indicia may indicate that they user postsfrequently, or has a large number of followers). In this manner, it maybe appreciated that a variety of visual cues may be utilized to makeinformation immediately available to a user, facilitating rapid“glanceable” interaction with a visualization to quickly assess theinformation presented. Data from a fitness tracker (such as a wearablefitness tracking device or an integral hardware tracker operating on auser's device) may be displayed in a similar manner, for example arecent workout 706 may be displayed with proximity indicating how longit has been since the workout was finished, and size of indiciaindicating the intensity or duration of the workout (for example).Various alternate fitness or health metrics may be visualized, such assleep tracking 707 that may be displayed with proximity indicating howlong it has been since the user last slept, and size of indiciaindicating the duration or restfulness of their last sleep.

Additionally, a plurality of non-visualization indicia may be displayed,such as an interactive button 708 or other indicia for a user tointeract with and operate a software menu, for example to configure avisualization being shown (such as to select colors, or to select whatinformation is shown in a visualization). In this manner a visualizationmay be configurable to suit a user's specific needs, for example if theywish to focus on communication rather than fitness monitoring, they maychoose to exclude fitness data and display more detailed contactinformation or communication options. Indicia corresponding tovisualized data may also be interactive according to a particulararrangement or use, for example to enable a user to click, tap, orotherwise interact with indicia corresponding to a contact in order tosend them a message (or call them, or other communication methods).

It should be appreciated that while reference is made to particularvisual cues such as the size of a particular indicia, a variety ofadditional or alternate visual indicators may be utilized according tothe invention. For example, a user may configure visualization toutilize color rather than size (for example, to economize screen spacefor a small display), or to utilize specific types of indicia such asinitials (as may be appropriate for indicating contacts), or icons (asmay be appropriate for indicating apps, as they may already have iconsfor display on a user's device). Another exemplary visual cue may begrouping or clustering of indicia to indicate categorization or othersimilarity between data. For example, a plurality of fitness trackingdata may be grouped together around a central indicia, for example arecent workout or daily step tracking count.

In this manner a visualization may present a wide variety of relevantinformation to a user in an easily digestible format. A user may quicklyglance at a visualization on their display (for example, on a windowdisplayed on a computer display monitor) and readily process relevantinformation without having to navigate through unnecessary informationor interfaces to find it. The use of a central indicia for the user andrelevance-based proximity around it is well suited to the natural humantendency to process information outward from a starting point, and usinga central user indicia provides a consistent starting point from whichto begin.

Additionally, by utilizing proximity or relative positioning of indiciarather than connections between data indicia (as may be used accordingto other data visualization implementations, particularly those adaptedto visualizing groups of users or contacts), information may bepreserved when scaling a visualization display. For example, if a user“zooms in” on a display to view more detailed information, or “zoomsout” to view a broad overview of available information, the relativepositioning of indicia is preserved and no relevancy information is lostin the scaling. Additionally, this makes a planetary model according tothe invention particularly suitable for small displays, such as on amobile device (such as a smartphone or tablet computing device), or asmartwatch such as the APPLE WATCH™, where a key usability factor isefficiency of data presentation. A visualization may be scaled-down tofit a smaller screen without loss of information, due to the use ofrelative positioning to indicate information, rather than an absolutepositioning approach. Such a relative approach according to theinvention also enables movement of indicia, for example data may“orbit”, rotate, or otherwise move about while maintaining relativeproximity to a user indicia or to other data indicia, facilitating afluid display without losing or obscuring information being represented.For example, a user may rearrange indicia or configure a degree of idlemovement, such as indicia slowly moving about their central userindicia.

FIG. 8 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical interface 800 forviewing user information. As illustrated, a graphical interface 800 maydisplay a user's name 801 or other identifying information (for example,a unique but arbitrary “screen name”), optionally with an icon 802 suchas a personal photograph or “avatar” that may be used to graphicallyidentify a user. A variety of summarized information particular to theuser may be presented, such as recent fitness activity 803 or otherconfigurable information, providing the user with a quick and conciseview of information of their choosing. For example, a user may wish tofocus on fitness data (as illustrated), or they may wish to concentrateon gaming performance and choose to display summarized game sessioninformation. A plurality of interactive indicia may also be presented,such as an interactive button 804 to view a user's calendar (asdescribed below in greater detail) or other additional information,allowing a user to view additional or alternate information, or ingreater detail, as appropriate without needing to have the informationalways presented (and thus complicating a summary view with informationthat may not always be desired). Additionally, a plurality of discreteuser-related “events” or data summaries may be presented, for examplesummarizing a recent workout 805 or a recent gaming session 806.Discrete events displayed in this manner may be presented with a varietyof associated detailed information, such as fitness metrics (asillustrated, indicating that the user ran 2 miles in 40 minutes, burning400 Calories) or game performance (as shown, indicating the user playeda game for 5 minutes). It should be appreciated that a wide variety ofinformation may be presented in this manner, and details displayed withevents may vary according to the nature of the particular data beingpresented or according to the nature of a particular data source. Forexample, some fitness trackers may provide detailed step-counting data,while others may provide heart rate measurements.

FIG. 16A illustrates a calendar view 1600 that may be utilized to viewinformation or events by day, for example when a user clicks on acalendar icon 804 (referring to FIG. 8, above) or other such interactionto select a calendar view. Calendar view 1600 may display interactiveindicia 1602 to enable a user to change how data is viewed (for example,to select from “view by day” or “view by month”), as well as a briefsummary of displayed information 1603 (such as a monthly summary whileviewing detailed information by day, for example). For example, calendarview 1600 may rearrange indicia 1601 with a focus on time-basedinformation, such as indicating a specific date on indicia 1601corresponding to the day an event occurred or the last time informationwas viewed. For example, when viewing fitness tracking information,indicia 1601 may be displayed with date indicated, and visual cues maybe used to indicate activity on each day such as (for example) fillingin a portion of a circle or other indicia to indicate progress toward afitness goal (such as minutes run or steps climbed, for example).

FIG. 16B illustrates a calendar view 1600 that may be utilized to viewinformation by month. Calendar view 1600 may be used to presentsummarized information on a per-month or even per-year basis (or anyother arbitrary interval of time, as may be configured by a user to suittheir preference), such as grouping information and displaying by month1604 as shown. Calendar view 1600 may (for example) use size of indicia1605 to indicate an overall summary of “how much this activity wasperformed this month”. In this manner a user may quickly view time-basedsummarized information, and then switch back to a planetary view withoutdisrupting information available, or a particular arrangement or othervisual cues.

FIG. 9 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical interface 900 forviewing game activity information. As illustrated, an interface 900 maypresent a game title 901, optionally with a game's program icon 902 orother graphically-identifying indicia that may be unique to a particulargame for rapid identification. A plurality of ranking data 903 may bepresented, for example to indicate a user's performance in a game ascompared to their friends or other known players (for example,top-ranking players). Interactive indicia 904 may be provided, forexample an interactive button to allow a user to alter displayedrankings (for example, to see a comparison of their performance and thatof high-ranking players), or to otherwise alter displayed information.For example, a user may wish to remove ranking information and insteaddisplay detailed game-specific metrics, such as “gold collected” or“achievements earned”, or other various information according to thenature of a particular game or a user's preference. Additionally, aplurality of discrete events or other summarized information may bedisplayed, for example an event 905 indicating a user's last gamesession or an event 906 indicating a friend's last game session. In thismanner, information may be rapidly viewable as a summary, or a user maychoose to view in greater detail as needed, such as to view detailedperformance information on a friend's last gaming session and see howthey are competing.

FIG. 10 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical interface 1000 forviewing fitness information. As illustrated, a user's fitnessinformation may be presented as a quick summary 1001, optionally with avariable indicator 1002 of a current metric (for example, to indicatehow many minutes they have spent working out so far today). Informationdisplayed as a summary may be configurable by a user to suit theirpreference, for example one user may wish to focus on runningperformance while another may instead choose to focus on cycling. Inthis manner a user may summarize information that is particularlyrelevant to them, providing personalized tracking while maintaining aconsistent user experience. A plurality of additional detailed fitnessinformation may be displayed, for example to indicate specific goals orachievements a user may be working toward. For example, a user's currentprogress toward a workout goal 1003, running goal 1004, or informationmeasured by a fitness tracker 1005 such as a FITBIT™ (for example) maybe shown. As illustrated, such detailed goal-oriented information may bepresented with an indication of “what is being measured”, for examplefor a run 1004 it may be indicated that each minute spent running grantsa user “1 point” toward their goal. In this manner a user's progresstoward a variety of goals may be monitored and presented, enabling themto view a variety of different fitness or health information in aconsistent and concise way.

FIG. 11 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical interface 1100 forviewing social network information. As illustrated, a social network(such as FACEBOOK™ or TWITTER™, for example) may be presented as aseries of discrete events 1101, each of which may correspond to a userpost or content submission. For example, activity from a user's contactswithin a social network (for example, other users they have added to a“friend” list within a social networking service, regardless of whetherthey are known outside of a particular social network) may be shown,such as when a friend posts a comment or submits a photograph. Aplurality of interactive indicia 1102 may be presented, for example toenable direct interaction within the context of a particular socialnetwork. For example, a user may view a comment posted by a friend andbe presented with an interactive button 1102 to allow them to post acomment in response, without leaving a social networking view or havingto locate the friend's contact information. In this manner a user mayview and act upon contextual information, providing the ability torespond directly to information as it is viewed.

FIG. 12 is an illustration of an exemplary graphical interface 1200 forviewing contact information. As illustrated, a contact's name 1201 (forexample, their actual name or a unique username or “screen name”) may bedisplayed, optionally with a photo 1202 or icon to graphically identifythe contact, for example a picture of them or a unique user “avatar”. Aplurality of interactive indicia 1203 may be presented, for example toenable a user to directly communicate with a contact being viewedwithout having to open a separate application or interface “window”. Thequantity, arrangement, or nature of such indicia may vary according to acontact's information, for example if particular communication methodsare unavailable (for example, if a user has not stored the contact'sphone number) a corresponding indicia may be omitted. In this manner auser may easily communicate with contacts according to their particularcommunication preferences. Additionally, a plurality of discrete eventsor other information associated with a particular contact may bedisplayed, for example indicating a friend's recent social networkactivity 1101 (for example, the last comment they posted) or a recentgaming session 1204 (for example, indicating summarized game performanceinformation). Additional interactive indicia may be displayed accordingto the nature of information presented, such as an interactive button1102 to enable a user to respond to a contact's social network post orcomment. In this manner, a variety of information associated with aparticular contact may be viewed in a unified interface 1200 with thecontact's personal information, along with interactive means tocommunicate with the contact according to the information available(such as their communication preferences, contact information, or recentactivity).

It should be appreciated that the arrangements of interface elementsdescribed above are exemplary, and various alternate or additionalarrangements may be utilized according to the invention such as byadding, removing, or repositioning elements such as icons, text fields,borders, or other elements, for example to adapt an interface displayedfor a particular purpose (such as a specific software application orsocial networking service, for example).

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the presentinvention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for automated multifactor prioritizationand visualization, comprising: a computing device comprising at least amemory and a processor and connected to a packet-based data network; adata aggregation server software module stored in the memory of, andoperating on the processor of, the computing device; a plurality ofcommunication adapter software modules stored in the memory of, andoperating on the processor of, the computing device; a prioritizationserver software module stored in the memory of, and operating on theprocessor of, the computing device; and a visualization engine softwaremodule stored in the memory of, and operating on the processor of, thecomputing device; wherein a first communication adapter software moduleis configured to receive data elements via the data network from a firstplurality of data sources in a first protocol and passes the receiveddata elements to the data aggregation server software module in astandard format different from the first protocol; wherein a secondcommunication adapter software module is configured to receivetime-stamped data elements via the data network from a second pluralityof data sources in a second protocol and passes the received dataelements to the data aggregation server software module in the standardformat which is also different from the second protocol; wherein thedata aggregation server software module generates a first aggregatecomprising all received data elements pertaining to a first object andgenerates a second aggregate comprising all received data elementspertaining to a second object; wherein the prioritization serversoftware module computes, using the first aggregate, a first pluralityof indicia each pertaining to a specific relationship between the firstobject and a third object and computes, using the second aggregate, asecond plurality of indicia each pertaining to a specific relationshipbetween the second object and the third object; and wherein thevisualization engine software module computes a distance measure fromthe third object to the first object based on a first indicia drawn fromthe first plurality of indicia, computes a size measure for the firstobject based on a second indicia drawn from the first plurality ofindicia, and determines a visual attribute for the first object based ona third indicia drawn from the first plurality of indicia; wherein thevisualization engine software module computes a distance measure fromthe third object to the second object based on a first indicia drawnfrom the second plurality of indicia, computes a size measure for thesecond object based on a second indicia drawn from the second pluralityof indicia, and determines a visual attribute for the second objectbased on a third indicia drawn from the second plurality of indicia; andwherein the visualization engine sends, via a third communicationadapter software module and the data network, the distance measure andsize measure and visual attribute of the first object and the distancemeasure and size measure and visual attribute of the second object to aclient visualization application.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein theplurality of data elements comprises at least a plurality of fitnesstracking data received from a fitness tracker device.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the plurality of data elements comprises at least aplurality of contact information received from a user's mobileelectronic device.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality ofdata elements comprises at least a plurality of communication datareceived from a configured user account.
 5. The system of claim 4,wherein the third object comprises an email account.
 6. The system ofclaim 4, wherein the third object comprises a social network account. 7.A method for visualizing aggregated user data according to a planetarymodel, comprising the steps of: receiving, at a first communicationadapter software module stored in the memory of, and operating on theprocessor of, a computing device, a plurality of data elements via adata network from a first plurality of data sources in a first protocol;providing the received data elements to a data aggregation serversoftware module software module stored in the memory of, and operatingon the processor of, the computing device in a standard format differentfrom the first protocol receiving, at a second communication adaptersoftware module stored in the memory of, and operating on the processorof, the computing device, a plurality of time-stamped data elements viaa data network from a second plurality of data sources in a secondprotocol; providing the received data elements to the data aggregationserver software module in the standard format which is also differentfrom the second protocol; generating, at the data aggregation serversoftware module, a first aggregate comprising all received data elementspertaining to a first object; generating a second aggregate comprisingall received data elements pertaining to a second object; computing, ata prioritization server software module stored in the memory of, andoperating on the processor of, the computing device, using the firstaggregate, a first plurality of indicia each pertaining to a specificrelationship between the first object and a third object; computing,using the second aggregate, a second plurality of indicia eachpertaining to a specific relationship between the second object and thethird object; computing, at a visualization engine software modulestored in the memory of, and operating on the processor of, thecomputing device, a distance measure from the third object to the firstobject based on a first indicia drawn from the first plurality ofindicia; computing a size measure for the first object based on a secondindicia drawn from the first plurality of indicia; determining a visualattribute for the first object based on a third indicia drawn from thefirst plurality of indicia; computing a distance measure from the thirdobject to the second object based on a first indicia drawn from thesecond plurality of indicia; computing a size measure for the secondobject based on a second indicia drawn from the second plurality ofindicia; determining a visual attribute for the second object based on athird indicia drawn from the second plurality of indicia; and sending,via a third communication adapter software module stored in the memoryof, and operating on the processor of, the computing device, and via thedata network, the distance measure and size measure and visual attributeof the first object and the distance measure and size measure and visualattribute of the second object to a client visualization application. 8.The method of claim 7, wherein visual attribute for the first objectcomprises a graphical icon based at least in part on the third indiciadrawn from the first plurality of indicia.
 9. The method of claim 7,wherein the graphical indicia comprise a plurality of interactiveindicia.